With Antoine Vermette and Andrej Meszaros still unsigned, Senators GM Bryan Murray is still very leary of making a trade at this time. Murray would never give up the chance to make his team better but his hands are tied until both situations are resolved.
Murray doesn't want to budge on his two year offer to Vermette. He is seeking a four year deal, similar to that of Chris Kelly but for more money per season. If Vermette ends up going to arbitration I would say it is very unlikely that he finishes the season in a Sens uniform. Murray feels that with some of the young talent progressing in the Sens system that he doesn't want to be on the hook for another long term contract when a younger player and at a cheaper price could very well take Vermette's spot at some point in the next few years.
As for Meszaros, the only leverage he has is to take a contract offer from the new league in Russia. Otherwise, he will be forced to be a training camp holdout if he is unable to come to a new contract agreement. I personally see neither situation occurring and look for Meszaros to be signed in the coming weeks for 3-4 years.
I must say it has been extremely tough to get rumours out of Ottawa. Murray has placed a gag order on everyone in management in Ottawa. This includes the people in the front office in Binghamton as well.
But still I have tried my best to work the phones in an effort to bring you what I am hearing these past few days.
I was told by a few sources that the Florida Panthers were never seriously exploring a trade for Jay Bouwmeester. As well, the Sens were never involved in trade talks with the Panthers.
One little tidbit that I was able to find out is that the Sens are very close to signing an agreement with the Elmira Jackels in the ECHL. I first reported this possibility back on May 21st in a blog here at HB.com. It is still not known if the Sens will share the Jackels with the Columbus Blue Jackets as they did last year. Regardless, having this affiliate will allow the Sens to keep a few more players that they drafted in the system rather than losing them if they are unable to stick with their AHL affiliate in Binghamton.
Staying with the Bingo Sens, I am very surprised that Jeff Glass was retained. He was an RFA but Murray has gone on record as saying Brian Elliott is going to get the bulk of the starts in Bingo this coming season. I have been told by numerous people close to Glass that he wanted out of the organization for a chance with another team as he sees the writing on the wall. Regardless, the Sens wanted an insurance policy for their AHL affiliate if Elliott was to go down with any type of injury.
Josh Hennessy was signed as well to a two year, two way deal. Hennessy has only played in 15 games with the big club over the last two years since being acquired in the Martin Havlat trade and has yet to show any consistency when playing at the NHL level. Time is running out for him and he must show much more than he showed last year in training camp before he becomes a career minor leaguer.
Lasty, thank you to everyone for the kind words about Tim Kilpatrick's passing both in my blog and via e-mail.
Be sure to check us out at www.sportstalkbuzz.com for all your other sports coverage. Yesterday alone we had 15 new blogs up on the NFL, MLB and UFC. We are currently looking for 5 NFL bloggers. The NY Giants, New Orleans Saints, Kansas City Chiefs, Baltimore Ravens and Carolina Panthers are the teams we are currently seeking people to blog about. If you are interested, please e-mail me.
Kevin
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